Overlap: The Other Side

<08/11/149,565 {Avion 148} - 06:55 | Transperation Station 9, Genosis, Altiri Sector Space>

"This is Gillian of recovery team two. Come in recovery team one. Please provide a status update."

"This is leader Asoka of recovery team one. We've already started the boarding procedure and are beginning our search of the facility now. Five starships are confirmed in docking, unregistered. Please standby."

With the situation inside of the station uncertain, the special unit of the temple's royal recovery squadron was sent out to discover the source of the calamity. Every single Altiri in the entire sector of Genosis felt that powerful pulse of psionic energy, mistaken for nothing else. Guesses within the command structure were already pointing to signs of an unauthorized purge attempt, though there was still plenty of unknown information to gather, and one of the Royal Scryers assigned to this crisis was breathing down Asoka's neck for swift answers.

"A pulse of energy that powerful can only mean one thing, but the reason for it now doesn't make sense."

"I asked for your scryers to please standby, Livvia. We are doing our best to determine the situation." Asoka departed from the airlock with her full team of seven in tow, spreading out to search the abandoned facility for answers.

Normally, Royal Scryers would be capable of using their clairvoyance to see who is in the suspect area and determine identities, along with motives. However, this only works if the targets of the third eye are conscious enough to make sense of anything. If there are unconscious Altiri in this station, then they must really be in rough shape, Asoka assumed.

Within a few minutes, Asoka and her team discovered the source of the growing madness spreading in news to everyone in the world, though it was becoming harder to believe with each passing moment. "This is Asoka to Livvia. We found them. Looks like every last one of them are too drained to make sense of where they are."

"Are they all passed out?"

"Two of them are out, the rest are awake, but they're having too much of a tough time staying that way... Psionic strain is confirmed to be the problem. They will need to rest in our advanced medical bay in the temple to make a recovery."

"Give us a visual."

"Understood. Standby please..." Asoka followed her orders from Livvia, who was the highest one in charge of this new investigation, right below the queen herself. By giving sensual access to Livvia, Asoka shared her immediate visual perception through the existing telepathy between them, showing the faces and downed bodies of all the unfamiliar Altiri persons obviously part of an aggressor group. Asoka knew them not, but Livvia was startled by the revelation.

"It, it can't be! No, this has to be some kind of mistake! It can't be them! Why are the Cy-Stars knocked out on the floor?"

Despite the boss growing frantic, Asoka kept her diligent attitude and continued trying to psionically scan the members of the Cy-Stars. "It's faint and uneasy to tell, but their current psionic strain shows evidence of a recently invoked purge... We must have just missed it too."

"This doesn't make any sense. Why would the top-ranked aggressor group be involved in an unscheduled purge? I show no records of a single meeting regarding such matters... Asoka? Are they going to make it in time to our medical bay?"

"Yes. Their drain is intense, but clearly survivable. I can't make estimates on how long their recovery will take. We can drag them into the temple, but what should we do about their ships?"

"This is really bad Asoka... Auugh, this has never happened before. If the Cy-Stars really did purge an unknown human unscheduled, then not only will there be trouble, every Altiri in the world is soon to become aware of their identity. Aggressor groups who purge are supposed to stay hidden in the fact that they have ever sent a purge in the first place... I must report this to my queen at once!"

"There is no need for your update Livvia." Startling both Asoka and Livvia, her gratefulness revealed her telepathic presence to the both of them, joining the revelation. "I just heard everything..."

"What should we do, my great queen?" Asoka only asked because the presence of the queen only proved how dire this moment was to everyone. Even so, the pause, worry, and hesitation in her gratefulness amplified the concern in us all. Even she is shocked by the news sitting in front of them.

"I find it impossible to believe that my best aggressor group would ever do something so brazen without my prior approval, so I won't make assumptions until I can confirm everything for myself. Asoka? Please proceed with the recovery operation. Transfer every last one of them into the medical bay. Leave their ships docked with the station and lock them down for evidence. Block all external communication during your flight back to corral position. Livvia? I will need your help with something soon, so I want you to transfer all you know about this situation to Ethsia. She will take over for the investigation once the Cy-Stars make an adequate recovery. In the meantime, prep the medical bay for their arrival."

Livvia and Asoka responded gracefully with their full loyalty intact. "Yes my great queen. At once."

With the days that passed, all who fell unconscious that day were treated well by the royal medical staff, and the Cy-Stars, though slowly, made enough of a recovery to stand and move again on their own power. It wasn't long before the true nature of the investigation begun, with the wrath of any betrayal to bear its fangs from The Unity.

Chapter Theme Shift: Aliens ~ Halo 4 OST

<08/14/149,565 {Avion 148} - 12:01 | Altiri Temple, Genosis, Altiri Sector Space>

When I recovered from my blackout, days later, I had to wait with my sisters inside a temple, all minds and hearts turned against us. This temple is sacred to all Altiri, and is a symbol to the heart of The Unity, just as important to me as anyone else. However, this is no longer a temple of our sanctuary; it has instead become a harborer of collective hatred and confusion, sending our loyalty outcast, as we have taken offensive action.

The distrust between even the medical staff and us Cy-Stars was evident in us all, though we were thankfully spared most of the interrogations for our time to recover. I was asked in a fleeting moment of consciousness who I had purged, letting all involved parties understand that my treachery went to the furthest step against their law; that my target was to always be on a forbidden list of purge candidates. Even though I was now in hostile territory, every single sister of mine made the same recovery, and they didn't regret their collective choice for even a moment.

However, after we had all healed, the push to get us to reveal our true intentions was pressured on by the queen, who had tasked an old acquaintance of ours to be the voice of wrath representing The Unity. I found myself isolated from my sisters in that same private room I was once in a long time ago, with Ethsia staring down on me with fierce eyes. Before I could even say a single word to her, Ethsia, after shutting the door behind us, unleashed her fury as she began her sacred task.

"Lumina... Is that really you I'm looking at?"

"You don't have to hide your anger from me Ethsia. We've all felt such hatred festering within you for a while now. And of course I'm me. Who else would I be?"

Ethsia tightened her fists, trying to melt me down with her locked gaze, as she began to raise her voice louder. "Did you really lose all sense of yourself after the last time you were resurrected? I must ask if you are the same person I used to know, because all I see before me now is an anomaly, an imposter to someone I trusted so much."

"You don't really believe in trust, Ethsia, not for us. You're a Royal Scryer! All you do every day is sit back and spy on every last Altiri, looking and waiting for someone to screw something up."

"And it appears I should have been watching the Cy-Stars a lot closer. You were at the top of the ranking system and at the top of the queen's absolute trust. It was for this reason we did not keep a much needed eye and ear on you, but to think you would go as far as to purge a heathen?!" Ethsia drove her hatred into actions, rushing into me with her body weight and slamming me up against the wall. Even though she did minimal damage, Ethsia would never do any worse; her duties inhibiting her ire.

"I know you see it that way Ethsia!" I had to struggle to speak, with her hand pushing on my upper chest. "Nothing I say to you will be proof enough that my judgment is not in error, that my target, despite being a male is still not a heathen."

"You already broke so many laws of The Unity, and these are not petty little laws that you get a slap on the wirst for." Ethsia released me from her strong grasp, but she didn't release her anger and confusion held towards me. "It sickens me to even look at you! Not only did you go behind our backs to institute a purge without ever bothering to state your intentions or attain our permission, you - at the same time chose a target that would automatically be forbidden by every single scryer of our covenant. Lumina? You have committed the greatest act of treason against The Unity this world has ever seen since the Fall of Zinod. We have substantial evidence of your involvement in this accusation, as well as the involvement of your sisters helping you achieve this new low. Do you deny it?"

I squinted my eyes to her, knowing Ethsia was never going to be on our side for a moment. "I won't deny what I have done. I made my choice knowing there would be consequences to follow, and I made my choice on Reed because I knew with certainty, as you have already admitted, that no such permission would have even been granted to me in the first place. However, I coerced my sisters into helping me, telling them everything I thought they needed to hear to help me go through with this. Even though I know they cannot entirely escape blame, it was I who masterminded this entire purge."

Ethsia stood there facing away from me, shaking her head in the lie she caught me in. "You think I really believe that?" At last, she turned to face me, defying my hope with her twisted promise. "Any aggressor group leader would go through great lengths to cover for their sisters if they were in the same kind of trouble you are in now. Every single member of the Cy-Stars will be considered just as guilty as you, and I will see that fair punishment be brought down on you all, equally."

"You don't have the authority to do that just yet," I argued. "Only the queen can make that judgment call, and I have yet to meet with her on this matter."

"Not to worry. Your trial with the queen will commence shortly. My job is to relay everything I learn from all of you prior to, so that there can be no mistakes in our communication." Ethsia paused before taking a long sigh, calming herself so. "I cannot begin to share how disappointed I am with you Lumina."

"Don't worry. I didn't do this for your sake."

"All those years ago, when we first revealed to you that there were so many heathens on that alien world, you broke down in our shared anger, and you swore an oath to me. You swore, that should any aggressor group or Altiri even so much as sympathize with a heathen from that world, that you would take action against the traitor, if I failed to see to the matter personally... How ironic things have turned out, to see that I am taking care of this request, yet it is you who has betrayed The Unity as well as your own words and promises."

I couldn't hide some of my guilt and shame being reminded of those words, of the overpowering hate I knew too well. I remembered so clearly what Ethsia was referring to, even though I had nearly forgotten without her presence. Even now, my hatred for the heathens is as intact as it always was. I hate every last one of those masculine humans. I would kill every descendant of Legasso if I could.

Ethsia is right on one front. I made a promise long ago to never get involved in the affairs of this distant alien world, this ACS system they call Earth. I remember being so angry to learn how corrupt their world was, that I had forsaken the entire race of humanity!

But everything changed over time, when we continued to learn from the human race. Heathens never change, but I've seen firsthand that not all males of the human race are as worthy of our wrath as The Unity encourages us to be. Such humans are extremely rare even by my standards, and such as how, I found one at random. Ethsia may accuse me of most what she already has, except for the blind assumption that I've made any mistake. "I remember too, Ethsia. You must understand why I did what I did."

"I picked up the only hint I needed from Fionne, who is also defending this insane act. She informs me that this Reed you spoke so highly of, is an exception to the classification of our enemy, according to your evaluation. Even if such a ridiculous statement were true, and I know it's not, only the queen's evaluation of a human purge candidate carries any weight solid enough to rule or act on."

"I thought you brought me in here for information. Instead, you only seek to berate me for my purge."

"Only because you disappoint me in so many ways I never thought possible. I believed you were a thousand times smarter than this. I had faith that if you were ever in any tough situation or struggling to find purpose in this frozen world, you would have come to me first and sought out my advice."

"Your advice?!" I challenged sternly. "You would have called me an idiot for considering to purge a male, and then proceed to paint a target on our backs for merely mentioning the possibility of my desire. And what of this purpose you speak of? What could you and your other scryers possibly have to offer me when I was suffering from my own isolation?"

"Isolation? I seem to recall the queen giving your entire team some very rare extensions of trust. You have your sisters, and you also have the Stryders and Radion as additional friends you can talk to, more people to converse with, and even the option to retire from the military if you fared better with those on the surface. I'll be talking with those two groups a bit later. You're not wrong though. I would have called you an idiot, because that is exactly how you would have behaved."

"So hostile. Is this how the Royal Scryers conduct their work in elegance and grace?"

"Hurma." Ethsia wasn't excited to hear the voice of my sister, but she chose to indulge the intrusion directly.

"Ethsia," Hurma graciously responded.

"You know, I am also perplexed by your decision to betray The Unity, among you, Fionne, and Ashiela. It was always my understanding that you especially would never dare allow for anything of this nature to occur in our ranks, even if it was among you own family."

"It's not really perplexing Ethsia. You simply don't understand because you don't really have a family you can ever call your own."

"You jest, child. I have my other scryers in the temple I work with frequently, putting people like you in their place."

"Hurma," I pleaded with most desperation of restraint. "Please don't do this now."

Hurma ignored my warning not to get involved, prioritizing my defense instead of her own. "You might work with these other scryers, but you've never had to live with them on a daily basis. You may have watched over us enough times to understand how we feel, but you'll never understand why we feel the things we do. I have seen Lumina's internalized sadness for years and years without end. I have heard her strongest cries, felt her greatest laughs, and I know her deepest fears."

"Save the speech for later Hurma. You will have the chance to admit to your own guilt before my great queen in due time."

Against Ethsia's wishes, Hurma only continued to press her words down into the scryer. "I stood against Lumina's choice to purge this human from the very beginning, and was the very last one to change my mind when I decided to help her out."

"The exact reason why none of this makes any sense."

"I still think this was all a mistake. I think that Lumina's vision on this human is narrower than I would like it to be. I think Lumina has become so attached for this human's wellbeing, that it has affected her judgment, taken and controlled by her admirable quality to meet and help new people. I did almost everything in my power to stop her from doing this... But Lumina was destined to purge this human, determined to go to even greater lengths than I was. Even when I threatened to leave, Lumina told me that no matter how much I would end up hating her for this one day, she would always still love me anyway... Do you understand why she would say something like that to me?"

"Delusional is the nature Lumina played in that moment. You of all people should have trusted your own instinct before allowing yourself to trust this traitor."

"Her name is Lumina, and she is my sister! The very reason I agreed to help her in this purge, is because despite everything, I refused to turn her in. I'm not going to let Lumina bear the blame for this all on her own, not when she refused to abandon me so many times. Even though Lumina won't see it my way, I'm willing to admit this all might have been a mistake, an accidental betrayal to The Unity's interests, but I will never apologize for what I have done, for trusting in Lumina, for helping someone I can really call my family."

... Oh Hurma! I can't believe you really felt this way all the time. I never wanted to hurt anyone, especially her, since she was so unwilling to use up her only good purge. "You didn't have to do that for me Hurma, but thank you. I love you too."

"Then you are as delusional as the rest of your sisters." Ethsia whipped out her frozen sword, only to clank the material against the solid metal ground below, the clacking sound getting our attention. "Regardless of your intentions, there will be maximum punishment brought down on you all. Here are the facts! You, leader of the Cy-Stars aggressor group, knowing full-well the treachery of your idea, premeditated a plot to purge a human that you felt you could not detach from. You planned in advance, because you knew from the beginning how wrong you were to purge a heathen and risk our information leaking out in harmful ways into that world, contaminating our purge experiment among many other unseen social consequences. You then convinced each and every one of your sisters, one by one, that their assistance to your purge was paramount, so important that it was worth betraying The Unity's interests. Indeed Lumina, you are the guiltiest out of the bunch, and as such, this investigation falls directly upon you as the primary suspect."

"I know this already." Ethsia must be in link with the queen right now if she's restating everything.

"You knowingly and willingly went behind the back of our queen and our scryers without approval, purging an enemy, sympathizing with him even, which by the way is an action that can never be undone. Your decision will have a variety of potential consequences for the human world, though I shall delegate those specifics to our queen. You did this with no regard for the law, no regard for our allegiance, and no regard for the many risks and ailments this could have brought upon you and your sisters. The medics were able to confirm with their passive scans that your psionic capabilities have all fallen down to a degree, and that evidence of psionic strain, combined with everything else, is plenty to prove beyond any doubt that you and your sisters have committed these acts of treason."

She is in pair with the queen right now. She wouldn't be talking this way otherwise. Ethsia doesn't even look sad or upset anymore, just tired and exhausted.

"I'm sorry Lumina, but the fate that now awaits you is out of my hands. I have made my deliberation. In about one cycle from now, all of you will be gathered, brought into the royal chamber, and sat down before the queen. From there on, the queen will decide your fate. All punishment that you face will be entirely up to her ruling, though I should not have to spell out how obvious it is that every last one of you are totally screwed." Ethsia turned around again, unhappy that this ever happened at all.

I knew I could feel some remorse from deep down within her. I was never trying to break her trust or betray her faith, and surely she must understand how I mean no harm even now. "So that's it then? You're done with us all, ready to simply throw us to the queen for punishment?"

"What else would you have me do Lumina? You are in far too deep to evade an ounce of your impending doom."

"If I were in your position, Ethsia, I would be asking myself why this ever happened at all, not from the point of view which incriminates me, but from the question in all of us, about whether everything we've been doing about this alien world was right or wrong. Is it right for The Unity to see all human males as the enemy, where there are those who have seen some rare exceptions?"

"The very nature of the question only proves that we Altiri are not immune from being tricked, deceived, and charmed into caring about lives that may be dangerous to the lives of others. If there are other heathen sympathizers like you say, then I will have to work even harder to track them down, before they ever get the idea to do the same as you have done, to copycat this tragedy."

"What if that way of thinking is the very treason we should be afraid of?"

"I still fail to understand you Lumina. You clearly identify most of the male population of ACS414 as hostile, so it is not as though you have forgotten our dark pasts, nor have you cast aside your promise for vengeance should one of them ever penetrate their presence into our world. Despite all of this, you see innocence in a man where no innocence can possibly exist, and then dare accuse corrective thoughts as treason... In time, I hope that you can understand the error of your judgment."

I wanted to say more, to argue for the sake of delivering my full force of emotion to this cold-hearted temple. I still wish to carry my allegiance even now, but my loyalty has now been divided, between the people I respect, and the people I love. Everything Ethsia said to me just now only drove me further apart from my trust in this world we live in.

We discovered the alien race on our own. We were the ones that set our eyes on the human world. We were the ones who increased our involvement with their lives, through indirect understanding or through personal interference with the experiment of the purge process. We have already purged 23 individuals, giving few our knowledge of our civilization and of our lives, and have even spread around our own verbal language into their world, so that our future purges can produce better understanding between each pair of nodes.

Yet, it is our interference that has the power to save someone's life, just as it has the power to destroy that life. Can The Unity really decree that what I have done is wrong, when they shamelessly pushed their own influence into a world so foreign to us first? Maybe I am in the wrong. Maybe even someone as unique as Reed is no exception to the rule we all share, that every last male species presenting with any level of masculinity is an enemy of us all, a danger to all lives around them. Even if I am prosecuted, even if I am jailed for eternity, I still have the opportunity to use the link that shall be established, to communicate and connect with the individual I have chosen for this purpose. Even if I might be wrong, I have to try. If I am wrong, I shall only know great sadness, great guilt, and great pain.